A plane the make of Boeing Max 8 belong to Southwest Airlines was forced to make an emergency landing minutes after taking off.
The plane which was headed for California for parking after they were banned, went for emergency landing after an engine related issue.
It did not have any passengers and the issue was not related to a computer system on the 737 MAX aircraft that has come under scrutiny following two fatal crashes, one on Lion Air and another on Ethiopian Airlines, since October, the airline said.
“The crew followed protocol and safely landed back at the airport,” Southwest said in a statement.
After the pilots reported the issue, Southwest Flight 8701 returned to Orlando International Airport just before 3 p.m. ET (1900 GMT)
The flight was scheduled to fly from Orlando to a logistics airport in Victorville, California, near the Mojave Desert, where Southwest began flying its fleet of 34 MAX jets for storage.
The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration grounded the 737 MAX following the two crashes but has allowed airlines to conduct flights without passengers to move planes to other airports.
A Boeing spokesman said the company was “aware of the incident and supporting our customer.”
Rather than fly to California, Southwest said the plane will be moved to an Orlando maintenance facility for review.
Courtesy of Reuters
